i have just got the infrared transmitter from griffin technology but it doesn`t work at all! i use an ipaq 3630 with ms ce 3.09. now i tried nearly everything but it doesnt work. if i use the built in infrared from my ipaq, total remote is working.
i made all updates for my 3630 and the transmitter is only working sometimes. you have to press the button a lot of times and you must point exactly to the receiver, but it is nearly unpossible to point as exactly as you need to. so, my built in infrared is working a lot better than the griffin transmitter, but may be i did something wrong.....has anybody got an idea?

lg
l.p


This message was edited by l.p on 02/13/04 01:31.

Thing is crap, does not work at all which Griffin knows very well.
Never saw anybody (besides Griffin themselves) confirm it does anything.
They say they only tested the thing with the 3600 series of IPAQ.
What a scam!
Barend

Barend, your attittude is tiresome and beneath an adult. Contact the technical support department for assistance with any questions you may have before flaming us across every discussion you can find. Please.

Total Remote has been tested in-house on the following:

iPaq 3630
iPaq 1910
iPaq 5455
iPaq 5555
Toshiba e310
Toshiba e330
Toshiba e740
Toshiba e750
Toshiba e800
Dell Axim X5
Dell Axim X3
Casio E-200

The only ones we cannot support are the Dell Axim X5 and the Casio E-200. They just will not work. I imagine everyone knows the reasons pretty well by now; inadequate audio port and inadequate IrDA port.

The ENTIRE iPaq line has always worked with the audio transmitter module, even the 1910 which needs an adapter. However, all iPaqs to date have weak IrDA.

The ENTIRE Toshiba line has outstanding IrDA, so we support them all. The e310/330/740 all have great audio port and work very well with the audio transmitter. The e750/800 do not have adequate audio ports for the module, but again they do have killer IrDA.

The Dell X3 series is awesome for IrDA, but not supported for the audio module.

Dell and Toshiba have tested this application pretty thoroughly. They should, as we have deals with both of them. They continue to test it to this day, as the deals are on-going and reviewed with every major release.

This application has been subject to review on peer website around the world (do a Google search) and has on average gotten a 9 out of 10.

I am very sorry you are having difficulty, barend. Rather than post "it's crap! it's a scam!" on every forum that mentions Total Remote, perhaps you could contact our technical support people to arrange for a resolution to your problem.

---
Don Stratton
Griffin Technology

Barend,
I have to agree with Don. We all understand that you are not fond of the product, but there is a fine line between unhappy customer, and corporate slander. Careful how close you walk it.

Don,
I am a new customer to Total Remote. I jsut purchased it from your corp. website this evening (About 1 hr ago). I have high hopes for the software and the ability to create and modify the Skins. I have a Toshina e355 running PC 2K3, and I will let you know how it works if you would like some field testing done. I have a degree in computer science with a spec. in Rapid Applications Develpoment. As such, I am hoping that as I dig deeper into Total Remote, that I can help you increase some of its functionality, and user options. I did try testing the Demo software with my PDA and would like to note that there are some SERIOUS limitations with the IrDA port on the Toshiba. I was only able to use it within 2-3 feet of the TV, and it was tempramental at this distance.

Please do not hesitate to contact me at ly listed address, and I would love to help your development team make this the 'sought after' PDA Remote solution. (If there is anything increadable groundbreaking that turns your company into the next Microsloth, remember us little people :) )

Beau Krebs
Programmer At Large
FireFighter/EMT-I

This is a reply to Don Stratton's posting:
Instead of accusing me of being tiresome et al, why not adressing the problems at hand?
As a company, you should pay more attention to your customers- I bought the thing in October 2002, never got it to work and my very friendly support mails remained unanswered.
After a year the interest in Total Remote seemed to pick up again, so I felt compelled to mix into the discussion, especially after the only 2003 response from Griffin was requiring me to phone them...transatlantic that is...
I feel I have every right to call selling a non working or unfinished product a SCAM.
Since I never noted someone who had success using the plug-in thing, I say it is CRAP too.
Your recently included CCF mode is another example, why do most commands repeat themselves?
This is such an obvious fault (and I'm not the only one experiencing it) you should really not throw it into the file before thoroughly testing it!
Alfa/Beta testing should be done by you and not by your customers, or you should declare a file BETA.
So why should I address you "nice" and "friendly"?
You sure did not give any reason to...
Now everybody seems SO grateful you're posting here, telling us how hard you're working, but I still have to see a significant improvement in Total Remote.

I really do not want to start a huge and ultimately pointless debate with you, barened. You are dissatisfied, and nothing I can say will apparently temper that.

Toshiba has tested this, and now includes it with their current PPCs. Toshiba makes Pocket PCs AND televisions, so they didn't lack the needed test gear.

Dell has tested this, and now includes it with their current PPCs. Dell makes Pocket PCs AND televisions, so they didn't lack the needed test gear.

Griffin, not being criminal OR stupid, tested this prior to release at the Pocket PC Summit last October 2002. PPC manufacturers like HP and users from all the world saw us demo Total Remote using a portable DVD player and a small home television, and we were doing so from about 50-100 feet away. There were no smoke or mirrors used.

Reviewers from around the globe have tried Total Remote with great success; our average score is 9 out of 10!

Regardless, Griffin freely admits that there are bugs in Total Remote, ESPECIALLY the substantially upgraded v2.x releases. We knew it would happen... CCF mode alone was a monumental effort in reverse-engineering and it isn't like Philips publishes an API or SDK for it. It seems each new version of OS and each new processor brings a new hiccup, so we are constantly rewriting it to support the newer PPCs. The customer has every right to a solid fundamental framework, so no matter what version it is it should perform certain basic functions without any real glitches (sampling, transmission, macros, etc). In Total Remote's native mode I believe we have that covered, but I admit that CCF mode is not likely to be rock-solid for 1-2 more incremental releases. Are we lazy? No. Are we using customers as alpha testers? No. There are just too many variables to believe it would be possible to account for them ALL in the very first version! We downloaded many CCFs from here, and we got them all to work. Since Total Remote v2.0 we have been receiving custom-made CCFs from customers who found a bug with trying to use their particular CCF, and this has been at least partially helpful; we were able to identify a couple of functions we needed to make simple error handlers for, and we altered the way we deal with some types of IR codes.

"Crap" is not a proper term for any product, unless it happens to be feces. I have a USB hub I could consider "crap" since it does not work 100% of the time and exhibits odd random errors with a USB webcam I have, but a more accurate assement would be that it is "finicky" or even "unstable". Using a word like "crap" tends to lose you any respect you might have had in many people's eye. "Scam" is a VERY dangerous word, because you are publically stating that we deliberately acted in an illegal manner, and as FireFighterflyr pointed out that goes more towards libel/slander than productive problem soving. You may feel you have a "right" to call our product "a scam" but legally you do not unless you are prepared to prove it. Of course since you are in a foreign country you can rest easy knowing we won't be knocking on your dorr serving you with a restraint order. ;) JUST KIDDING!! Chill out, man.

Please send an E-mail to [email protected] mentioning you are "barend from remotecentral.com", provide them with your contact info (credit card used, shipping address, invoice number, full name, something so we can look you up in our system) and tell them Don Stratton authorized a full refund including shipping costs, regardless of how long ago you ordered Total Remote. I do not wish to continue to spar with you, I cannot fix it as fast as you would like, and I cannot do anything else but refund your money and apologize for teasing you with a product you wanted to use but find yourself unable to. Maybe once the users around here start reporting that we are stable, nay, even BETTER than TVRC, then you can try the demo again and see if we are worth your time.

D00dx0r! You r0xor my whirled! I can ALWAYS use competent methodical testers! Believe me, after the disastrous "Total Remote v2.0 beta program" I have come to treasure users who actually document things!


No, that never happend. You've been hanging out with barend too much. ;)

Interesting. I have a Tosh e310 and e330, but no e350. IrDA on most Toshes go at least 20 feet, and some out to 40 feet, but that can be very dependant on the IR protocol; Sony uses a protocol that is so easy to time and so resiliant that you could beam it through grape Kool-Aid pointed the wrong way and it would still work, while Blaupunkt has such a PITA protocol that virtually _NO_ brand of learning remote can understand it and smoke from a cigarette blown into the optical path can screw up the reception.

I have a favorite saying in development that applies especially well to Total Remote: YMMV... your mileage may vary. Also known in the Bugzilla bug tracker we use as "WORKSFORME". ;)

Maybe I should hook you up with the logging version and see if I can figure it out. We bombed spectacularly on the e750 when it came out because we (and every other PPC remote control) was trying to use the wrong GPIO pin on the XScale processor for infrared support. These things happen. You shoulda seen the problems we had when we first tried Total Remote on an unreleased Pocket PC using the Intel "Bulverde" processor (PXA270, PXA271, PXA272), but it only took one day of serious work to fix everything.

Don, think it's time to bury the hatchett, I did not get angry because of the money, but because anything I buy that won't work at all makes me feel that way...
On the other hand you're obviously moving into the right direction, since your latest software does work on the CIR, OK imperfect for ccf files but at least for me the package isn't d.o.a. as it used to be...
Your credit offer is generous indeed, but I won't go for it- I'll rather stick it out till it really works as I hope it can...
Anyway, I wonder if anybody has a circuit of the 3900 series so we can check why it's not working with the audio plugin?

YES! Consider it buried. If it is of the tiniest consolation you can rest assured that this all makes me much more miserable than it makes you. :)